gwen: and yet we've seen mitt romney and paul ryan continuing to talk about this every single day. which is interesting. because we are told that americans aren't voting on foreign policy issues. and yet here is one that won't go away. >> it's interesting also because this issue is -- is an issue that until quite recently, president obama had a huge lead against -- gwen: you were saying osama bin laden and the conversation would end. >> the polls do suggest they are chipping away at that. it's an interesting strategy, though, because as one republican strategist who's worried about it told me, when you start playing on those issues, you are playing on the commander in chief's turf. and the only time that that has ever really worked and made a difference in an election was with jimmy carter. gwen: and one of the things that joe biden was trying to do was to get back at that is to put the grinning and the smiling and the condescension was to try to say i know this guy. you can back up on this. and even on domestic issues, like the stimulus. which the republicans have always criticize